The most helpful favourable review

The most helpful critical review

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 starsSpirituality in the modern, technological world
Reflecting back on the enormous popular and critical success of 'The Matrix', it is refreshing to note that people were overwhelmingly drawn to a film that conformed itself neither to the cynical and pessimistic bent that informs many recent movies nor to an easy and clichéd sort of optimism. The quest for truth is not mocked but strongly valorized here. This film...

3.0 out of 5 starsCrafty filmmaking lacking substance
In this movie, the Wachowskis obviously have a ball working out the technical details of the photography and the digital effects. There's a nice gloss and attention to detail that's lacking in many other films. The brothers have an eye for small details, such as reflections and color tints. What The Matrix lacks is any real intelligence. As an synthesis of comic books,...

Reflecting back on the enormous popular and critical success of 'The Matrix', it is refreshing to note that people were overwhelmingly drawn to a film that conformed itself neither to the cynical and pessimistic bent that informs many recent movies nor to an easy and clichéd sort of optimism. The quest for truth is not mocked but strongly valorized here. This film is especially interesting for the numerous clues it gives about how spirituality is envisioned in the modern, technological world: organized groups and systems of all kinds (social, religious, political...) are discarded in favour of a more individualistic, master-disciple type of spiritual experience; at the same time, the notion of an official church is replaced by secret fraternities. This disregard for dogmas entails an eclectic approach that welcomes elements of Eastern thought (especially Buddhism and Taoism), of Hellenism and of Christianity; the path towards enlightenment is the Way, or Tao, which can't be put into words but must be lived. Neo's ongoing initiation features recurrent death-resurrection motifs - it does get caught up in a few noisy and overdone action scenes, but it remains fascinating from beginning to end. And the movie works well as an introduction to philosophy...

Last night, I have watched one of my favorite movies, "The Matrix" as I have seen it many times. I would highly recommend this movie, and I am not talking about just the full trilogy. I am talking about the very first one, this one. There is alot of symbolism in this movie and certainly several aspects that would drive one mad and utter turns to disbelief if it were to be true. What if our reality is the Matrix? Don't start looking for the holes on your arms...yet.

Also, there was alot of dailogues between Neo and Morpheus that is memorable, including this one:

"The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it. Were you listening to me, Neo? Or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?"

The woman in the red dress is what we would consider to be temptation. There are those who tasted temptation, lived for it, and will die for it...even though it is a lie. Interesting, eh?

Go out and see this movie. It is surely a must see and there's a good deal to learn from it. But, if you're not into symbolism of the movie, the actions and fights were "awesome," as my inner child would say.

Well the movie describes very well how the thing are working in our world. If you are not awaken, you are not able to see the way the matrix works. You are in a dream. It is the time to wake up and the movie can just give you the little hint you need to see the world as it is.

The Matrix Trilogy, and especially the first installment, must be one of the most significant films of our time, and is likely to go down as an all time sci-fi classic along with the likes of Blade Runner. It is obviously laden with symbology fished from a variety of sources, but I wonder if the Watchowski brothers realised just exactly how powerful a metaphor for our reality they were creating.

The central premise that our lives are not 'real' but are steeped in illusion in order that our life force may be fed upon whilst we are enfenced unwittingly like cattle - this is a relevant and powerful message on many levels. It can easily be seen that this is true on a superficial level, with the rampant rise of ultra-aggressive capitalist consumerism, whereby everyone is 'sold a dream' in order to siphon off all income to profit the few, but it goes deeper than that, and can be used to catch a glimpse of some ideas on the true nature of reality. The overlap with material such as Castaneda is remarkable, with stories about the archetypal predator who is invisible, and feeds on us because he has 'given us his mind'. In all, it is a striking metaphor for the human condition.

Of course the great thing is that, even if you don't want to explore things to those levels, taken at surface value as a piece of entertainment, the Matrix is still a fantastic sci-fi/action film, with colourful characters, awesome visuals, and a solid original plotline. Taken as a trilogy, this is a fantastic piece of film-making artwork, but the first episode definitely has the lead for sheer impact and originality. Recommended to all!

This is still my favourite movie and one that I have seen more than 10 times. It is a movie that can be seen on many levels. Some will see it just as a great action movie which it is, but there is so much more to this film. It is a fantastic depiction of the journey of the spiritual seeker and the difficulties that he encounters within himself as he starts pushing against the prisons of his own mind and the multitude of programs that operates and which keep us small.

It also neatly depicts the way humans are kept as 'food for the moon' in Gurdjieff's words or simply food for ultra terrestrials. In the film this is depicted as humans, being little less than cultivated biological batteries for the machines.

The story is part of a trilogy and all three parts are worth watching more than once, as you will undoubtedly see new things each time. Things that start making sense only after some time of reflection and reading. In this regard I can recommend reading the book by Ouspensky called "In Search of the Miraculous", and the book by Laura Knight-Jadczyk called "The Secret History of the World".

This movie has a great cast, great cosutmes, cutting edge action, original storyline and it's just plain cool. The leather duds, flying kicks and black glasses have brought back the popularity of the trench coat, brought back appreciation for kung fu movies and sent the sunglass revolution on a spinning craze.The script is quite clever that to this day I still find it mind-boggling. It has definitely sparked after-movie discussions because I've had to ask my more intellectual friends to explain it to me. I am glad that it decided to throw in action sequences which suited the less brainy audiences. All around a novel concenpt and should have just stopped right here.The following sequels seemed somewhat of a disappointment. As you were expecting each sequel to become more novel and orginal, it had to come to deal with teh reality of the Matrix in the fight of humans aginst the machines. It was better to have left you wondering and thinking "what-if".My favorite characters, by far, are the agents. In their secret-service like manner to be anti-cool, they were very cool and just as lethal as the rebels. "Find them and Destroy Them" is one of my favorite lines followe dby an agent slowly bringing his hand to his ear piece.A neat film. Conceptually confusing at times, but the action more than makes up for it.

I consider this movie to be one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time, right up there with the first two 'Alien' movies and various anime like 'Cyber City: Oedo', 'Ghost in the Shell' (which played a role in inspiring this movie), and 'Akira'. Being the hardcore anime fan that I am, I found 'The Matrix's' style very appealing and fun to watch. Everyone fit their roles perfectly in this movie; despite the fact that I'm not a fan of any of them (except Hugo Weaving), Keanu Reeves was much more likeable and believable than Will Smith would have ever been (he was originally considered to play the role of Neo, but he himself turned it down because 'he wasn't a serious enough actor'. I like Will Smith, but I totally agree with him). And let's not forget Hugo Weaving's brilliant performance as Agent Smith. Like this movie, I consider Hugo Weaving to be one of the greatest things to have ever come into existence. He has maintained his status of being the highlight in the entire Matrix franchise, alongside the action sequences that are nothing short of amazing.Now, many people complain about the middle of this movie up until the point where Neo sees a deja-vu cat to be super-boring, but I disagree, and I tell them to open their damn ears and listen to what the characters were saying so that they are so frigging confused later on, because everything that's said in the movie is said with a purpose. Not to mention, everything that's said is actually very interesting."Whoa."Anyway, I'll be closing this review by highly recommending it to any sci-fi lover who's been crazy enough to NOT view it yet. This movie is like the 'Pulp Fiction' of... well... science fiction.***** out of *****

To Neo (Keanu Reeves) it seemed as if his entire life was a dream. As with most of us he was searching for something. He was also looking for a person named Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) who would be able to answer the burning question "What is the Matrix?" It just may be possible that for other reasons Morpheus may be looking for Neo.

The movie producers get points for it the first people to do the particular FX.

This film even though it has a beginning and an end is really the first is a series that unfolds a further truth.

Keanu Reeves plays his part well; however, he is better as Siddhartha in "Little Buddha" (1994). Their little trick with pills reflecting off the classes was good. Speaking of Buddha one does not realize until going through the rest of the films in this series that there is a subtle Buddhist philosophical thread running through them.

Even though this is a review of the first film in a series or trilogy I do have the compete Blu-ray set. It rather grows on you.

This is still my favourite movie and one that I have seen more than 10 times, as I went out and got the VHS edition back then before DVD's were in. It is a movie that can be seen on many levels. Some will see it just as a great action movie which it is, but there is so much more to this film. It is a fantastic depiction of the journey of the spiritual seeker and the difficulties that he encounters within himself as he starts pushing against the prisons of his own mind and the multitude of programs that operates and which keep us small.

It also neatly depicts the way humans are kept as 'food for the moon' in Gurdjieff's words or simply food for ultra terrestrials. In the film this is depicted as humans, being little less than cultivated biological batteries for the machines.

The story is part of a trilogy and all three parts are worth watching more than once, as you will undoubtedly see new things each time. Things that start making sense only after some time of reflection and reading. In this regard I can recommend reading the book by Ouspensky called "In Search of the Miraculous", and the book by Laura Knight-Jadczyk called "The Secret History of the World".